Pollard Memorial Library (Lowell)

Selfie, how we became so self-obsessed and what it's doing to us, Will Storr

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-391) and index

contains biographical information

index present

non fiction

Selfie

bibliography

1028640709

Will Storr

how we became so self-obsessed and what it's doing to us

"We are living in an age of heighted individualism. Success is a personal responsibility. Out culture tells us that to succeed is to be slim, rich, happy, extroverted, popular--flawless. We have become self-obsessed. And our expectation of perfection comes at a cost. Millions are suffering under the torture of this impossible fantasy. The pressure to conform to this ideal has changed who we are. It was not always like this. To explain how we got here, award-winning journalist Will Storr takes us on a journey across continents and centuries to explore the origins of this notion of the perfect self that torments so many of us: Where does this ideal come from? Why is it so powerful? Is there any way to break its spell? Full of thrilling and unexpected connections among history, psychology, economics, neuroscience, and more, Selfie is an unforgettable book that makes sense of who we have become. Ranging from Ancient Greece, through the Christian Middle Ages, to the self-esteem evangelists of 1980s California, the rise of narcissism and the "selfie" generation, and right up to the era of hyper-individualism in which we live now, Selfie tells the epic tale of the person we all know so intimately--because it's us."--Dust jacket

The dying self -- The tribal self -- The perfectible self -- The bad self -- The good self -- The special self -- The digital self -- How to stay alive in the age of perfectionism